


everything happens so much

by borntoblue



Category: BTOB
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4862063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/borntoblue/pseuds/borntoblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A pianist, a coffee shop employee, a skateboard enthusiast, a dog owner, two wannabe delinquents and a man with an excessively fancy car connect by coincidence.</p><p>Alternatively, Hyunsik has strange regular customers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	everything happens so much

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve had the first draft of this fic done since June? It’s technically older than the last fic I posted oops. 
> 
> This AU is very silly and is completely based on an effort to connect the concepts in [this photoshoot](http://btobsgsupport.tumblr.com/post/76483361323/official-photo-btob-4th-mini-album-teaser) to each other. Credit to Cara for the idea of the bed scene, and probably some other stuff I forgot about. <3

**1.**

When Minhyuk saw that it was his aunt calling, he knew she was calling to ask about Sungjae.

She’s not entirely in the wrong to call him about it. Minhyuk is Sungjae’s friend in addition to being his cousin, and he’s the only one of Sungjae’s friends whose number she has. Out of all the people she can call, Minhyuk is most likely to know where Sungjae is.

However, her logic has failed her this time, because Minhyuk is attending the same party that Sungjae is avoiding. Minhyuk can hear the same piano music through his smartphone's speaker that he can in his other ear.

"I'm serious, auntie," Minhyuk says into his phone. "I'm at your house right now and I haven't heard from Sungjae at all."

"You aren't lying to protect him, are you? Because I'll have you know that boy's in trouble whether I find him sooner or-"

"I haven't done that since I was like, ten." Minhyuk looks up to the balcony, where he can see his aunt chattering into her own phone with an irritated expression. "Trust me, I've got no idea where Sungjae is or what he's hoping to accomplish by skipping this party." 

He can both see his aunt sigh and hear her do so from his speaker. 

"I suppose I can trust you, Minhyuk," his aunt leans forward onto the railing. "Just tell me if you hear from him, okay?"

"Got it."

His aunt hangs up, so Minhyuk stops looking up at her and returns his phone to his pocket. 

He's free to look at the party now, though it's not like there's much to see. Minhyuk is used to the opulence of his aunt and uncle's house, and he's not going to be hooking up with any of his uncle's business partners anytime soon. The entertainment tonight is easy on the eyes, a blonde pianist with a pair of round glasses, but staring too much would probably be rude.

"She's looking for Sungjae?"

Minhyuk stops looking around and returns his attention to his previous conversation partner, the ever-relaxed Donggeun. He's leaning against one of the house's pillars now, looking at his own phone.

Minhyuk sighs, "Yeah. You know how he is these days, always skipping these things without warning."

"He sent me a text."

Minhyuk leans towards Donggeun with interest, "Really?"

Donggeun holds up his phone with a grin, showing his latest text message.

"From: Sungjae

how come u arent at the park?"

Minhyuk can't help but be unimpressed. For someone who claims to want nothing to do with his parents’ circle, Sungjae is sure fond of Donggeun. If he was anymore obvious, Donggeun would actually catch on.

"Did you text back?"

Donggeun nods, "Told him I was at his parents' party and that I'm walking Goldie later."

Predictably, Sungjae's reply is near instant. Donggeun shows the screen to Minhyuk again.

"From: Sungjae

oh. ilhoon and i are headed to btob, was wondering if u wanted to come. that's ok though. talk to u later. ^^"

Minhyuk pulls out his phone again to text his aunt that he knows where Sungjae is now and that he's going to go get him.

Donggeun chuckles, following Minhyuk on his way out the room, "Sungjae retrieval mission?"

"May as well," Minhyuk says, extracting his car keys from his pocket. "His parents kind of count on me to do it."

"The pianist is pretty good tonight though," Donggeun says, grinning as much as ever. "And it's not like Sungjae won't come back on his own."

Minhyuk pauses to weigh Donggeun's words. All of it is true. The pianist is good at what he does as well as handsome, Donggeun is here to talk to anyways, and Sungjae has a motorcycle. He won't even need to take public transit to get home.

In the end, Minhyuk shrugs.

"I can get myself a smoothie while I corner him, so it's all good."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good," Donggeun knows the charms of Sungjae and Minhyuk's favourite coffee shop quite well. "Have fun while you're out."

"I will!" Minhyuk calls back to Donggeun as he leaves the main room and goes into the entrance hall, fiddling with his car keys the whole way.

 

**2.**

Sungjae wasn't exactly lying when he said he and Ilhoon were headed to Born to Blend. 

He realized Donggeun would be relaying his message to Minhyuk after all, and Sungjae would hate lying to either of them, much less both. Knowing Sungjae's penchant for honesty, Ilhoon had the brilliant plan of telling Donggeun only their final destination without telling him how long it would take for them to get there.

An hour after Sungjae sent the text to Donggeun, he and Ilhoon enter the coffee shop to an irritated Minhyuk sitting on a stool in front of the counter.

"Heading to Born to Blend," he says as soon as Sungjae walks up. "You said you were _heading_ to this place and it took you an hour to get here."

Sungjae swallows his initial urge to point and say it was Ilhoon's idea.

"I didn't say anything about the time," Sungjae points out, hoping he doesn't seem as intimidated as he is. Cool people aren't intimidated by their tiny older cousins, even when said cousins are not pleased.

Minhyuk sighs deeply.

On the other side of the counter, Hyunsik smiles at the new arrivals with a bit of amusement.

"He's had three smoothies while he was waiting. Any longer and I might have been dealing with a pile of purple goop instead of Minhyuk."

Ilhoon snorts, approaching the counter and getting himself up on one of the stools, "Yeah, well, you shouldn't let him buy that many drinks."

Hyunsik shrugs, "He's a paying customer, I can't really do anything. Would you two like something?"

"Yeah, two small americanos please."

Sungjae deflates as he gets up on the stool beside Ilhoon. It seems Ilhoon's quest to get him used to non-sugary coffee is continuing today too. At least he pays for it.

Minhyuk glares at Ilhoon, "Yeah, well, once those drinks are made I'm taking Sungjae home."

"Be my guest," Ilhoon says, looking at Minhyuk while he hands his change over to Hyunsik. "Good luck fitting his motorcycle in your car."

Minhyuk leans past Ilhoon so that Sungjae gets his glare now.

"You're getting on your motorcycle and going home after this."

“Okay," Sungjae says. He tries to sound dismissive and sarcastic, but he's pretty sure it came out as resigned and obedient.

Minhyuk nods as if the matter is finished, so Sungjae is now completely sure he didn’t manage the former.

All three of them watch silently as Hyunsik moves around behind the counter, preparing Ilhoon and Sungjae's drinks. Minhyuk is typing a message on his phone now. It's probably for Sungjae's mother. She will not be happy when he gets back. Sungjae would be scared of that, but he's a cool adult so of course he isn't.

"Is the party still happening?" Sungjae asks, just to gauge whether he should be concerned. Not that he will be, because he's not scared of his mother. For real.

“Yeah, it’s on for a while still. You aren't totally screwed, congrats." Minhyuk answers, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. "Donggeun's taken his leave early though. You’ve missed your chance to see him today."

"I didn't say anything about Donggeun," Sungjae mumbles.

Minhyuk leans past Ilhoon again to give Sungjae a knowing look.

"Here's your coffee," Hyunsik says, placing two cups in front of Ilhoon and Sungjae and blocking Minhyuk's face with his arm.

"Great," Minhyuk hops off his stool. "Sungjae and I can go now."

Sungjae gets a lid for his drink and follows his cousin even as Ilhoon stays on his stool. This is a sign to Sungjae that he has done the Not Cool thing, but he's probably annoyed Minhyuk enough for the day.

"Can I get a ride?" Ilhoon calls out after Minhyuk with a grin.

Minhyuk scoffs at Ilhoon over his shoulder, "Sungjae accomplices don't get to ride in my car!"

"Have a nice evening, you two!" Hyunsik calls out as Minhyuk opens the door of the cafe. 

Sungjae trails after Minhyuk with a short wave to Ilhoon. Once they're outside Minhyuk walks down the street briskly. Sungjae has to jog for a few steps to catch up.

"Are you mad at me?" Sungjae asks in spite of himself.

Minhyuk sighs, "I'm not mad, just vaguely annoyed. If I didn't have Hyunsik to talk to the whole time I would be more annoyed, but it's cool, it's not really an issue. Just get back to your parents' house, get changed, and socialize. Then everything will be fine."

Sungjae groans, waving his head from side to side in frustration, "But it's just their business partners and stuff! It won't be any fun!"

Minhyuk elbows him, "You've skipped enough of it. If I have to be there then you do too. If you hadn't skipped maybe Donggeun would have stuck around and you'd have someone to talk to, but you skipped and now he's gone."

Sungjae groans again. Ilhoon said skipping things was fun but it's becoming apparent to Sungjae now that it's not fun when you have to go back.

They've arrived at where Sungjae's motorcycle is parked, so Sungjae gets on it as Minhyuk watches.

"You're headed straight back to your house, right?"

"Yes, mom," Sungjae replies. Minhyuk rolls his eyes.

"Your actual mother is waiting."

With that, Sungjae takes his keys out and hurriedly starts his bike, taking off down the street seconds later.

 

**3.**

An hour or so after Ilhoon leaves, one of Hyunsik's other most loyal customers comes in sporting a pristine white suit, wearing round glasses, and carrying a briefcase.

Eunkwang then ruins the air of sophistication he has going on by the way he has to struggle onto one of the high stools.

Hyunsik grins at him, "Just got off work?"

"You know it," Eunkwang responds, putting his briefcase up on the counter and leaning on one hand. "Tonight's party went on for a long time, and there wasn't any other entertainment. I mean, it was nice because I got to play a few of the longer songs I don't play normally, but it sure was tiring."

Hyunsik gets the ingredients for the smoothie Eunkwang will inevitably order ready as he talks.

"Did you get paid well?" Hyunsik asks, getting a cup out as he does.

"I got paid more than I usually do since it was longer, but if I sat down and calculated it it would probably be about the same per hour as usual..." Eunkwang pauses to think about it for a second, then shakes his head. "Well, I always feel ungrateful when I do that, so I won't. I'll just accept what they've given me. It will pay for my groceries for the week, so there's that."

"That's good," Hyunsik holds up the cup he has ready. He never understands Eunkwang’s thought processes, but he’s beyond questioning them at this point. "Are you going to order anything?"

Eunkwang laughs, "Oh, right, coffee shop. One of the berry-flavoured smoothies please."

Hyunsik has no idea how Eunkwang can forget he's in a coffee shop. Eunkwang is looking right at all the drink machines and Born To Blend's decor has simplistic pictures of steaming hot mugs everywhere, but that's not too important so Hyunsik starts on his drink.

Eunkwang gets his wallet out and continues talking.

"It was a party for businessmen and their wives, I could tell even from the five minutes where I wasn't staring at the piano, but there were some of their sons and whatnot hanging around too. I actually got to meet the son of the couple who hired me," Eunkwang puts the money for his drink down on the counter as he continues. "He was polite but seemed a bit sulky. Anyways, that's everything that happened to me, how are you?”

“I'm fine. Pretty slow day for the cafe, but since it was slow I got to chat, that was nice." Hyunsik pauses, trying to remember which of the other regulars he's mentioned to Eunkwang before. "Ilhoon came in today. He's made a friend recently, but it seems he all he does is get his friend in trouble."

"That sounds like Ilhoon,” Eunkwang says, though he only knows Ilhoon from Hyunsik’s stories.

Hyunsik hands Eunkwang his drink with a sigh, "He's a nice guy, he really is. He's never given me any trouble. He just needs to stop skipping his classes and... Doing whatever it is he does while skipping them."

Eunkwang sips his drink thoughtfully, "Well, there's no use for you worrying about it. He's an adult and he's not your responsibility, he can make his own choices. He'll probably straighten out his situation with time."

Hyunsik shakes his head, "You don't have to give me advice. You obviously just came here to chat, and I'm being silly anyways."

"Am I that transparent about the chatting?" Eunkwang asks. He always changes the subject when Hyunsik suggests they should. That's one of the nice things about him.

"If you don't recall," Hyunsik grins as he leans towards Eunkwang a bit, "you seemed to have forgotten you were in a coffee shop earlier."

Eunkwang laughs, "That could happen to anyone."

Their conversation continues leisurely until it's time for Hyunsik to close up shop. 

(Hyunsik really wonders what Eunkwang does with his time when Hyunsik doesn't have an evening shift.)

 

**4.**

Changsub watches a kid enter the skatepark with a paint bucket in hand and wonders if he thinks he's going to fool anyone into thinking he's actually employed to paint it.

The place does need a touch-up, that much is obvious. Changsub's been using this particular park since he started skateboarding, which was a couple of years ago at least, and it existed well before that. The bright colours on the sides of the ramps have faded, and some of the designs are ruined by peeling. Changsub would not be skeptical of anybody coming in to paint it ordinarily, but this kid's fashionable jacket and hat do not make him look like a public service worker.

Also, there are no official signs saying any painting is going on.

Changsub would normally just ignore the situation. Heaven knows he's seen graffiti artists come in here and turned a blind eye to it before. But they normally have at least a couple cans of spray paint and often also stencils. 

This kid has a single paint bucket and a brush. 

Changsub is a bit interested in what he's hoping to accomplish.

So as the kid sets his paint bucket down in front of the rear wall of the skatepark, Changsub heads down the ramp he's on top of and slides toward the kid, stopping himself once he gets decently close.

"What are you up to over here?" he asks, grabbing his skateboard under his arm and approaching as casually as possible.

The kid jumps, but once he gets a look at Changsub he relaxes. He's already caught on that Changsub's not out to get him in trouble.

The kid gestures to the wall, "Making an addition."

"Fair enough," Changsub looks down at the paint bucket. It's open now, and very blue. "Just wondering why you didn't have spray paint."

The kid looks a bit annoyed, "This was convenient. It happened to be there."

"Where, in your parents' garage?"

The way he doesn't answer makes Changsub suspect he's right on the mark.

"It's not a very convenient way to tag a wall, at any rate," Changsub continues.

"What's a kid like you know," the kid mutters, and Changsub frowns in return.

"I'm twenty-four, for the record," the kid sputters in surprise before Changsub continues. "And for all the years I've spent at this skatepark, I've never once seen someone graffiti a wall with a paint bucket. What if someone sees? You'll have to carry the paint bucket with you, and you probably won't have time to seal it."

The kid glares, "Don't tell me how to live my life old man."

He made a quick turn from "kid" to "old man." How adaptable.

Changsub shrugs, "I'm just saying, it's not very convenient. What can you do with only one colour, anyways?"

The kid sticks his paintbrush in the bucket and swirls it around, "A true artist can make art out of anything."

"That's..." Changsub pauses to think about it, pursing his lips. "That's a valid point."

“Yeah, I can say smart things sometimes,” the kid stares at the wall, before looking back to Changsub. "Don't you have anything better do?"

"Sure do," Changsub says, and he takes that as his cue to put his skateboard back down and take off.

He'll see what masterpiece the kid produces with time.

Changsub goes back to focusing on his skateboarding, grinding down rails mostly today. He's almost got the hang of doing tricks at the end of them, though he still ends up with his feet on the ground and his skateboard rolling up the nearest ramp a good deal of the time.

It doesn't take long for his skateboard to actually reach the top of one, and when Changsub jumps up to retrieve it, he realizes the kid is already done.

On the wall, in a simple font, he has painted the English word "ILL" in blue.

Changsub snorts, startling the kid again.

"That's definitely the work of a true artist."

The kid glares up at him over his shoulder. 

"Shut up."

Changsub grins, and the kid gets grumpier.

"Is "il" a character in your name?"

He goes a bit red, "That's none of your business."

"So creative," Changsub probably shouldn't tease someone that he's just met, but he really can't help it. "You have a lot of vision, Il."

The kid wipes his paintbrush on the ground, staining its green pavement blue, and grumpily seals his paint bucket.

"You shouldn't do this to young creative people," he grins up at Changsub, seeming to have thought of a good retort. "I could be really discouraged by you. You could make me quit when I might be the next best street artist the world has ever seen."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Changsub snarks back, and he watches as the kid walks away.

The kid grins over his shoulder, "No, you won't see, because I'll go work my genius somewhere where it will be appreciated." He gives Changsub a wave. "Have fun rolling around."

"I will!" Changsub says, because it's true.

He watches the kid's back as he leaves and rolls down the ramp once he's out of sight.

Changsub intends to take full advantage of his time out here, and Hyunsik's shift at Born to Blend starts in another half hour. If he wants to make some progress before then, he has to skate the whole time.

 

**5.**

It takes Donggeun a moment to realize that the leather jacket-wearing man pushing his hair back dramatically on the park bench is actually someone he knows.

Goldie rushes up to the man immediately, which is Donggeun's first sign it's someone familiar. He laughs as she does, letting an "easy, girl" slip out in English as the man on the bench looks up.

Then it hits Donggeun that he's looking at Sungjae.

"Yo," he greets, and Sungjae looks up, surprised to see him as well.

"Hey," he crosses his legs as he turns towards Donggeun, ignoring a very eager Goldie wagging her tail at his feet. "What brings you here?"

"Walking my dog."

"Oh, right," Sungjae laughs awkwardly. "That was pretty obvious."

Goldie noses Sungjae's thigh and Donggeun grins at her, "Looks like she's missed you."

Sungjae looks down at Goldie like he doesn't know what to do with a dog, which is silly because he plays with Goldie and Hamo all the time, or at least he did when he saw them on a regular basis.

"You're allowed to pet her, you know," Donggeun reminds Sungjae, grinning.

Sungjae looks around once, twice, and then bends down to scratch Goldie's ears.

"Afraid the dog-petting police will catch you?" He jokes at Sungjae's skittishness. Sungjae flushes as he starts to scratch Goldie's belly.

"I have a reputation to maintain," he insists. "I can't be completely cool if I go around petting dogs in public."

"I'm pretty sure you can," Donggeun plops down on the bench beside Sungjae, getting comfortable as Goldie gets even more snuggly with Sungjae. "Has Ilhoon told you otherwise?"

"Ilhoon hasn't said anything about dogs, but I thought avoiding cute animals kind of came with the territory." 

Sungjae tries to take his hand away so he can actually look at Donggeun as they talk, but Goldie noses him so he goes right back to focusing on her. He seems to have missed Goldie too.

"Cool people can like petting dogs," Donggeun points to himself, "I'm cool and I own Goldie here."

"Yeah, but you're not cool in a tough kind of way," Sungjae looks up at Donggeun properly now. "You're cool in a... Natural kind of way."

"Aw, thank you," Donggeun grins again. "For what it's worth, your new look is cool. I almost didn't recognize you, you're such a tough guy now."

Sungjae leans over in excitement, "You think it's working? You think I'm cool now?"

"You're always decently cool," Donggeun answers, as Goldie spots a flock of birds across the lawn. She's probably going to want to chase them in a second.

"Decently?" Sungjae frowns. "What does 'decently' mean exactly? Do you think I'm-"

Sure enough, Goldie leaps up, jerking Donggeun's arm. Donggeun stands up, giving Sungjae an apologetic smile

"Well, I came here to get Goldie some exercise and I should probably get back to that. Do you want to come along?"

Sungjae considers it.

"It would be fun, but I need to think about my reputation."

Goldie strains against her leash some more as Donggeun starts to walk away.

"Suit yourself. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, I'll text you," Sungjae says, making a phone-like gesture before leaning back again.

Donggeun lets Goldie drag him across the grass then, jogging alongside her until they reach the flock and the birds scatter up into the trees. Goldie whines while she watches them go.

Donggeun spares a glance over his shoulder for Sungjae, who is trying out different dramatic poses.

As Sungjae tries leaning with both his arms over the bench's back, angling his head so his hair falls more in his face, Donggeun gives him a thumbs up.

Sungjae evidently sees. Immediately after Donggeun's message, he flushes a bit and grins widely.

Since Sungjae's on such a "cool" kick lately Donggeun's not going to say anything, but at moments like these, he thinks Sungjae is really cute.

 

**6.**

Eunkwang doesn't have a job on Thursday, Thursdays are a slow day for parties, but he does have an interview of sorts first thing in the morning so he's in his suit anyways.

He pauses to look himself over in a store window, having no full-length mirror to check himself with at home. As usual, he thinks he looks quite dashing. That woman at the weird trinkets store was right, the fake glasses really do add something. Hyunsik also had some good advice when he suggested carrying his sheet music in a briefcase looked much better than carrying it in a fluorescent plastic folder. It's much more organized, too.

The whole getup is probably overkill for a potential job being bar entertainment, but the only other clothes Eunkwang has make him look like the unfashionable twenty-something bachelor that he is. When going to a job interview of any sort, avoiding that impression is probably best.

Satisfied that he looks nice, Eunkwang moves along, checking the time on his phone. Thirty minutes until the interview, and about ten minutes until he reaches the bar by foot. 

He has some time to kill, but if he starts playing games on his cell phone now he may get absorbed and miss the interview entirely. Eunkwang really wants this particular job: it could turn into a regular one and Eunkwang would embarrass himself on national television for a regular job. 

A sleek and clean car pulls up to the curb a few spaces ahead of Eunkwang, and he watches it in envy. People look at Eunkwang with envy sometimes for his expensive-looking suit and briefcase, but Eunkwang's just faking to look good for his clients. Anyone who can afford a nice car is clearly the real deal.

Pushing thoughts of money out of his head, Eunkwang enters the convenience store a few doors down. He has a bit of change left from groceries, so he might be able to find something to entertain him while he waits, or at the very least grab a snack. 

The large selection of magazines is promising, but Eunkwang doesn't read them very often so he has no clue what will be interesting. Half the magazines seem to be geared towards the housewife crowd, Eunkwang isn't interested in celebrities' personal lives, and grabbing porn is not something he should be doing at the moment. 

Maybe he'll grab one of those children's magazines filled with fun facts, he used to like those and he can claim it's for his niece or nephew or something. It's not like he'll be talking to anyone he knows anytime soon-

"Excuse me, have we met before?" 

Eunkwang jumps up from where he's crouching to examine the selection, and finds himself at eye level with a very handsome man who Eunkwang has definitely not seen before.

"I don't think we have, no," Eunkwang looks the man up and down. He's dressed very casually but smartly, but his face is not ringing any bells. Which is unfortunate because it's a very nice face. Eunkwang would not mind being acquainted with its owner.

The man squints at him, "You look really familiar though?"

"Ah, I play piano?" Eunkwang seems to be losing his ability to explain things adequately in this man's presence. He quickly collects himself. "I mean, I'm a pianist who gets hired to play at parties sometimes. You may have seen me around at one?..."

The man hits a fist into the palm of his hand, revelation clear on his face, "That's right, I saw you last night. At the Yook household?"

Eunkwang grins widely. Getting recognized makes him feel like a celebrity, "I was absolutely there!"

"Oh, cool," the man smiles back at him and it is a very nice smile indeed. "You were good. My aunt often doesn’t pay attention and hires pretty bad entertainment, she's banned us from ever mentioning the time she hired a trot singer, so you were a nice surprise."

Eunkwang grins all the more, "Good to hear. Being remembered for my skills is what I strive for."

Eunkwang can't help puffing out his chest dramatically at those words, but instead of being weirded out the man laughs like Eunkwang made a good joke.

"Glad I could help."

Then, the man holds out his hand.

"I'm Lee Minhyuk, the couple who hired you's nephew."

Eunkwang blinks. There's no real reason for Minhyuk to talk to him with that loose relation, but given how rare it is for a good-looking person to give Eunkwang the time of day so easily, he will take it.

"Seo Eunkwang," he answers in slight disbelief as he shakes Minhyuk's hand. "Your uncle said they'd probably hire me again, so I guess I'll see you around?"

Minhyuk grins.

Eunkwang is struck by his handsomeness all over again.

"Great. See you then, Eunkwang."

"Yeah," Eunkwang tries to keep himself from looking too amazed. "See you then."

Minhyuk moves on past Eunkwang, towards the section of the store that sells packaged pastries, and Eunkwang himself thoughtlessly moves out of the store.

He checks his phone for the time again once outside. That only killed about three minutes, but now that Eunkwang has left, he'd look like an idiot to go back in. Minhyuk seemed to actually like him, he can't ruin that.

He looks over his shoulder and spies Minhyuk walking up to the counter, a small pudding in his hand. He seems to be whistling.

Eunkwang quickly looks away again and moves on, headed towards his destination once more.

He didn't get anything physical to occupy his time, but he certainly got an encounter to occupy his thoughts.

Hopefully it doesn’t distract him during the interview.

 

**7.**

Ilhoon heads over to Born to Blend as soon as his classes are finished, firing off a quick text to Sungjae telling him to meet there soon. Sungjae texts back a crying sticker and then elaborates he's in class for another half hour, but at that point Ilhoon shuts his phone. He'll just chat with Hyunsik while he waits.

This plan is proven to not be the best one when Ilhoon gets there and Hyunsik is fully occupied talking to Minhyuk and some businessman.

Ilhoon is unimpressed with Minhyuk's choice of place to schmooze, and so he views his decision to walk right up to the counter and take the stool beside Minhyuk's as a perfectly justified interruption.

Minhyuk doesn't notice immediately, he is very invested in his conversation with this man, but Hyunsik smiles at Ilhoon.

"Good afternoon, Ilhoon. Would you like your usual non-Sungjae order?"

Ilhoon glares at Hyunsik. He always teases Ilhoon about this, even though Ilhoon has explained many times that he just likes to see Sungjae's faces when he drinks americano. Hyunsik seems to think it's because Ilhoon's trying to look cool, but that simply isn't true. Ilhoon is cool no matter what he drinks.

"Yes, I'd like a caramel macchiato please."

Ilhoon hands Hyunsik the change he keeps for coffee and Hyunsik gets to work on his order. 

Minhyuk still doesn't notice Ilhoon.

Ilhoon elbows him. It's a bit satisfying to hear him sputter.

"Hello to you too."

Minhyuk spins around. Ilhoon almost expects him to glare, but Minhyuk just looks amused.

"Hey, Ilhoon. I didn't see you before, sorry."

Before Ilhoon can open his mouth about what's got him so amused, the businessman leans to get a look at Ilhoon, a curious expression on his face.

"You're Ilhoon? Like, Hyunsik's regular customer Ilhoon?"

Ilhoon frowns. He knows Hyunsik mentions his regulars to him, but to know Hyunsik mentions him to other people is a weird feeling.

"Yeah," he sighs. "Hyunsik's regular Ilhoon is me."

The man abruptly grins and waves quickly. 

"It's nice to meet you finally. Hyunsik mentions you a lot. I'm Eunkwang, has he mentioned me at all?"

That's when Ilhoon realizes that Minhyuk is not schmoozing with a businessman at all.

"Yes, he has," Ilhoon gives Eunkwang a scrutinizing look. Hyunsik worries about Eunkwang because he doesn't have the most stable income in the world, but he certainly doesn't look the part. His suit is spotless and those glasses look expensive. "Nice to meet you too."

Eunkwang just smiles at Ilhoon more. Ilhoon can't help but think that his smile is a bit weird.

At that moment Hyunsik comes back, putting Ilhoon's drink down in front of him. He's grinning to himself as he does.

"It's a day full of meetings, isn't it Eunkwang?" he leans against the counter casually, seeing as no other customers are coming in.

"It really is," Eunkwang turns to Minhyuk. "I still can't believe we both come here to talk to Hyunsik. I've honestly never seen you before today, it's so strange."

"You're on pretty different schedules," Hyunsik says. He looks between Minhyuk and Eunkwang curiously. “Eunkwang barely ever gets off work before the late evening, and Minhyuk normally comes in the afternoon."

"What about me?" Ilhoon leans forward, wanting at least a bit of Hyunsik's attention while he's here.

Hyunsik grins, "Afternoon, same as Minhyuk."

That's true. Ilhoon knew Minhyuk as "the other guy who visits Hyunsik near lunch" before he knew him as Sungjae's cousin.

"You really know our habits well," Minhyuk comments while he sips at his drink. 

Hyunsik flushes, "I have to know when you come so I have a good idea of when I'll be chatting."

Eunkwang laughs even though Hyunsik wasn't being particularly funny.

Minhyuk turns to Eunkwang after he does.

"How did you find this place, anyways? I just wandered in by coincidence one day and kept coming back for these things," he holds up his favourite purple goop with a grin. (Ilhoon doesn't understand why Minhyuk comes to a coffee shop for a beverage that isn’t coffee.)

"Oh," Eunkwang laughs again, "Hyunsik's an old friend of mine, so I started stopping by when he got his job here! He was my junior in high school."

Ilhoon is interested in that information. For all Hyunsik chats, he doesn't share much about himself. 

"We were in choir together," Hyunsik elaborates.

"Hyunsik sings like an angel," Eunkwang says proudly. 

Hyunsik flushes again, "Don't listen to him, he's much better. The director always had to tell him to take it down a level so he blended with the rest of us."

Although even Ilhoon's a bit impressed by that, Eunkwang himself looks embarrassed.

“I was a bit of a show-off at the time, it’s not really a compliment.”

"You sing, too?" Minhyuk seems very interested in Eunkwang. He's leaning towards him rather than towards Ilhoon or Hyunsik. "You didn't sing last night."

Ilhoon is really losing track of this conversation. If he can't get into it soon he's leaving.

"Oh, I don't sing at parties very often. It's better to be background music at parties, and live singing is distracting, right? It’s not really suited to being background music."

"I'm sure you'd sound great, though."

Ilhoon can't see Minhyuk's face, but he can recognize the lilt in Minhyuk's voice and he can imagine the greasy grin that's going with it. Minhyuk is flirting and Ilhoon doesn't want in on this conversation at all.

"I'm busy today," he announces, grabbing a lid for his drink and hopping off his stool. "So I will be going."

Minhyuk turns around to look at him at that, surprised, "So soon?"

Hyunsik gives Ilhoon a small wave, "Bye, Ilhoon."

Eunkwang gives Ilhoon a notably larger wave, "Sorry we couldn't talk much but it was nice to meet you!"

Ilhoon gives his own small wave to the group, "Bye."

With that, he exits Born to Blend, pulling out his phone to text Sungjae again.

"To: Yook Sungjae

ur cousin's greasing @ btob, let's skip it. head to skatepark, i need u to help with my masterpiece."

 

**8.**

Changsub doesn't expect the kid to show up again. With no skateboard and probably not much real interest in tagging, there would be no reason for him to. Especially since he learned Changsub came there all the time, and presumably that Changsub would not hesitate to talk to him a second time.

But appear again the kid does, standing in front of his work as soon as Changsub enters the skate park. 

He has a friend with him today, a mopey boy with a cool leather jacket. He's sitting on the kid's paint bucket. It can't be terribly comfortable, but he doesn't seem to mind.

“You could, like, embellish it somehow,” the boy on the paint bucket offers. “You could underline it?”

The kid examines the “ILL” he left there a couple days earlier and hums thoughtfully.

“Would the line be right under the letters or would there be a space between the line and the letters?”

“Mmmmm,” the boy squints, “a space, I think.”

“Would it be curved or straight?”

The boy slumps forward, pouting. “I don’t know. It’s your graffiti, Ilhoon.”

Changsub stops himself from snickering as he skates by the pair. He knew there was an “Il” in the kid’s name.

Ilhoon, as he’s apparently called, looks over his shoulder at his friend.

“It wouldn’t hurt to be more assertive you know. Might help you with your boy problems.”

Changsub should probably just move along and not eavesdrop, but Ilhoon hasn’t noticed him yet and “boy problems” sounds like a fun discussion to listen in on.

Changsub moves to the ramp directly behind the pair as Ilhoon’s friend sighs.

“It’s hard to be assertive with Donggeun, he’s just so…” he trails off, searching for a word.

“So what?” Ilhoon asks. 

“He’s so chill,” his friend says, and Changsub thinks the word “chill” did not need that much thought. “I feel like I’m ruining the atmosphere if I try to be assertive.”

Changsub gets to the top of the ramp behind them in time to see Ilhoon’s dramatic sigh at his friend’s words.

“Assertive doesn’t mean angry or forceful or whatever you probably think it does,” Ilhoon waves his paintbrush in front of his friend’s face. His friend flinches even though there’s no paint on it. “Assertive means making it clear what you want. Like, just as an example, you would be assertive if you ever made it clear that you want to take Donggeun out on a date.”

“But it’s hard!” His friend whines. “And what does giving you graffiti advice have to do with assertiveness?”

“The first step to telling people what you want is telling people what you think.”

Changsub resists the urge to chime in with “deep” by skating down the ramp, out of sight again.

“Now tell me what you think would look better, a curved line under this or a straight one.”

Changsub pauses his skating to listen to the guy’s answer. He’s almost invested in these strangers’ drama now, this is a bit weird and he should probably stop.

“I... I think it would look better going under it straightly but being thicker on one side than the other.”

“See, there’s an opinion.”

Figuring there won’t be much else interesting to listen to, Changsub skates away, to a smaller ramp. He's working on something new today, and if he’s going to be falling on his ass he doesn’t want to do it on one of the tall ramps.

(Besides, he’s pretty sure Ilhoon spotted him.)

 

**9.**

Donggeun likes Sungjae a lot, and he can’t say he doesn’t like Sungjae’s newest phase. His new fashion sense and motorcycle are, in fact, pretty cool. It's just that the "constantly skipping events" part of Sungjae's most recent behaviour is annoying at times.

Mostly when Donggeun's hanging out with Minhyuk.

“No auntie, I don’t know where he went. Stop asking me every time this happens. He knows you call me first. What is he even skipping this time?” Minhyuk sighs. “That’s not technically skipping, won’t he come back by the time... What? Early? Then you should just say Sungjae has scheduling conflicts with the early dinner and he’ll come by when the proper time comes... I’m sure he read your texts, he just doesn’t always remember to reply. He does that to me sometimes too.”

Donggeun stretches while Minhyuk talks. This might take a while and he doesn’t want to be cooled down when they start jogging again.

“Just to make sure? Really?... I’m out with Donggeun, this is not a good time... What do you mean it’s the perfect time?”

Minhyuk pauses for a moment then turns to Donggeun, covering the mouthpiece of his phone.

“She called you a Sungjae magnet, just so you know.”

Donggeun laughs, Sungjae’s mom says weird things sometimes, and Minhyuk goes back to listening to her.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll find him and tell him just so you can be sure and everything... Yes, auntie, I’ll handle it, goodbye.”

Minhyuk hangs up and sighs again, stuffing his phone in the pocket of his sweatpants.

"Looks like we're going a Sungjae hunt."

"My favourite," Donggeun jokes. He stops stretching, since they're obviously not jogging anymore. "What's he skipping?"

"Dinner with a family friend," Minhyuk starts walking in the direction they parked his car. "An important one, since she can't risk Sungjae being late apparently."

"Sounds more like a business partner they're trying to impress than a friend."

Minhyuk pulls out his phone again, firing off a text of some kind, "Yeah, my aunt and uncle just call those friends." He frowns as he looks up from his phone. "Do you think Sungjae isn’t checking his phone? She’s just worried he didn’t get the message at all."

"I dunno," Donggeun pulls out his own phone. "Let's check."

Minhyuk rolls his eyes as Donggeun types out "hey" and sends it to Sungjae.

"He might realize you're hanging out with me and ignore you too."

"He always texts me back, even when he's skipping." Donggeun says. 

Almost immediately after "sent" pops up on his screen, his phone vibrates. He holds it up so Minhyuk can see the notification signalling a text from Sungjae.

Minhyuk looks unimpressed.

"I keep thinking that he should be getting better at being a delinquent after a couple of months."

Donggeun grins, "I'm just too much of a Sungjae magnet. He can't resist me."

Minhyuk gives Donggeun an odd look.

Donggeun grins more, "Wanna bet on where he is before he tells me?"

"No, I'll pass, I'm sure our resident Sungjae magnet knows better than I do," Minhyuk brings his hands behind his head. He looks up at the sky and heaves another sigh. "I hope Sungjae's not far. I want to hit Born to Blend tonight and if he's too far we won't have time."

"Didn't get enough of Hyunsik this afternoon?" 

Minhyuk pauses, oddly considering, then shakes his head to himself.

"It's not that, I just thought I might run into someone. It doesn't really matter. Time to find my cousin."

 

**10.**

Sungjae is not quite sure why Donggeun is out and about in the evening when he’s probably already walked Goldie, but he's not going to complain since it means they can hang out.

Donggeun hasn't quite arrived though, so Sungjae has to decide on the perfect pose before he does. Sungjae has so far decided to lean against a lamp post, but he can't decide whether he should put one leg up or keep both feet on the ground. Whether to look up or down is also a dilemma.

They're small differences, but Sungjae has to look his absolute best.

He's going to try and be assertive tonight.

"Hey, Sungjae."

Donggeun's voice startles Sungjae out of his position, there goes his cool pose, but Sungjae recovers by leaning back against the lamp post and giving Donggeun a casual wave.

"Hey."

Donggeun grins at him, "Decided to change which park you're hanging out in?"

"Ilhoon wanted to visit the skatepark."

Donggeun stops walking in front of Sungjae, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Despite the fact that it's a bit chilly out, he’s wearing the ratty hoodie and shorts he calls his jogging clothes.

"Ilhoon's learning to skateboard now, is he?" Donggeun starts walking again, further into the park, and Sungjae follows in short order.

"Yeah, something like that,” Sungjae feels a bit embarrassed by what they were actually doing, so he just leaves it at that.

"Is Ilhoon here?" Donggeun looks around them, but their only company is an indistinct person on the other side of the park.

"He went home already," once Sungjae asked him to, of course. He complied only because Sungjae gave him a guarantee he'd finally get over himself and ask Donggeun out.

"It's just us then," Donggeun smiles at Sungjae. "Not even Goldie tonight."

Sungjae flushes, hoping it's not visible, "Yeah, we're alone."

"Cool," Donggeun's pace is leisurely, which is good because it means Sungjae can maintain a cool leisurely pace too. "You want to do anything while we have the chance? I don't have any money on me though."

"No, it's fine!" Sungjae insists immediately. "I didn't really have anything in mind either, just walking is fine."

Would adding "anything is fine if it's you" be cool or just cheesy? Sungjae can't decide, so he doesn't say anything.

"Cool, cool," Donggeun says again. "I was just jogging before I came over, myself."

What should Sungjae say to that, for that matter? He guesses they should just chat for a while before he confesses. Doing it suddenly probably wouldn't be best.

"I can kind of tell," Sungjae says, gesturing to Donggeun's clothes, and Donggeun laughs.

The pair continue down the park pathway as they lull into silence. Sungjae almost wants to pull Donggeun off the path, maybe that would be a good transition to a confession? Confessing under a tree in the park would be good, right?

Meanwhile, Donggeun continues casual conversation.

"How are your classes going?"

"Oh," Sungjae snaps out of his reverie. "They're going fine. I keep up with my readings."

Donggeun raises an eyebrow, "Are you going to class though?"

"Most of the time," Sungjae answers truthfully. "Ilhoon told me I have to 'strike a balance' with skipping so I only skip when I'm really sure I'll be okay."

"Which is not always I'm guessing?"

Sungjae shakes his head. He's not a genius student by any means, falling firmly in the "okay" range whether he skips classes or not. Ilhoon seems to be a bit smarter, so maybe that's why he's so knowledgeable about skipping.

"Well, as long as you're doing okay I guess that's fine," Donggeun looks at Sungjae carefully. "What about your mom's stuff?"

Sungjae groans, "Come on, that's boring. You skip out when you can, don't you?"

Donggeun grins awkwardly, confirming Sungjae's accusation.

"Most of the time I get out early by telling them I need to walk the dog."

Sungjae sighs, "See, that's what I need, a dog. Forget the motorcycle, I needed a dog this whole time."

Donggeun laughs, "Dogs are pretty great."

Another lull. Sungjae isn't sure whether "dogs" is a great lead-in topic to a date invitation either.

"Do you have any plans for tonight?" Donggeun asks, and that makes Sungjae perk up in excitement. Donggeun making the move to spend longer with Sungjae is a good sign.

"No, not at all!" 

But something nags at Sungjae's mind and when he realizes what it is he deflates a little.

"Actually, dinner with someone important, according to mom."

"When is that?" Donggeun asks.

"The guy's coming in a couple hours," Sungjae looks off to the side, wondering how much of that time it will take him to finally ask. "He's going to be early, mom texted me about it earlier."

Abruptly, Donggeun starts laughing.

Sungjae frowns, "What?"

"Sorry," he looks up at Sungjae again. He looks awfully cute stifling his laughter. "Your mom was really worried you didn't get those texts. Reply to her next time."

"That..." Sungjae just forgot honestly. "Would cramp my style."

Donggeun laughs again, "That's silly. She’s your mom, you should definitely text her back.”

Sungjae has no response to that, and as the next lull in conversation falls over them, he wonders if he's going to figure out what a good lead-in to a date invite is any time soon.

 

**11.**

Ilhoon normally doesn't feel annoyed upon entering Born to Blend, but entering today means seeing someone else in his usual spot, talking to Hyunsik leisurely.

Ilhoon can't help being a bit annoyed as he plops down on the stool beside them.

Hyunsik does, however, look up from his conversation, so that's gratifying.

"Good afternoon, Ilhoon," his eye smile makes an appearance as Ilhoon settles down.

"Hey," Ilhoon answers back. "One caramel macchiato please."

"Coming right up." 

Hyunsik gestures to the man sitting beside Ilhoon as Ilhoon fishes money out of his pocket. 

"This is another one of my regulars, Changsub. I don't know if I've talked about him before, but-"

"No, it's okay Hyunsik, we're acquainted."

Ilhoon drops his coins on the counter in surprise as he looks up to find the man from the skatepark was the one sitting in his spot. 

He looks very pleased with himself, and Ilhoon feels his annoyance mounting.

"Oh, the rude guy from the other day."

Hyunsik's eyes go wide, "Rude?"

Changsub clicks his tongue, "I wasn't that bad."

"Luckily I'm tough, but you could have crushed my dreams."

"Well I didn't, so we're good."

Hyunsik looks between the two with slight alarm.

"How exactly did you meet?..."

Changsub and Ilhoon exchange a glance. Ilhoon tries to convey not to tell him everything.

Changsub looks away, eventually, back at Hyunsik, and gestures to Ilhoon vaguely.

"I saw him drawing and pointed out some flaws."

Hyunsik looks somewhat unimpressed, "That is a bit rude."

"I was just trying to help!" Changsub shrugs. "Anyways, we met, you don't have to introduce us."

"You didn't actually introduce yourself though," Ilhoon can't help but point out. "You just told me you were twenty-four."

Hyunsik, in the process of handing Ilhoon his drink, suddenly sputters.

Both Ilhoon and Changsub raise an eyebrow at him, and he flushes slightly as he turns to Changsub.

"You're twenty-four, really?"

Changsub frowns, "Yes?"

Hyunsik covers his face with his hands.

Changsub's eyes narrow. 

"You thought I was younger, huh."

Hyunsik lets his head fall to the counter for a moment.

"I thought you were younger than me this whole time." 

He looks up, giving an apologetic grin to Changsub.

Changsub almost looks annoyed enough to nag him some more, but it's Hyunsik, and even Ilhoon thinks Hyunsik is cute at times. He's certainly very cute right now, sheepish eye smile on full display.

Looking at his face, Changsub just huffs and waves it off.

"It's fine. I've been getting that a lot lately."

Ilhoon eyes Changsub's bright hoodie, baggy shorts, small height, large cheeks, and the skateboard he has leaned against his stool.

"I can't imagine why."

Changsub seems to detect the sarcasm, but with Hyunsik still apologizing about his mistake, he's quickly otherwise occupied.

 

**12.**

Even if Hyunsik makes occasional mistakes about the fine details of his regular customers lives (or their ages), he at least knows the times they come in for drinks.

Every day, Hyunsik makes a game of predicting when people will show up. The regulars he talks to are easiest: he knows their schedules outside of coffee too. Changsub is never consistent and Eunkwang's hard to pin down exactly besides "evening", but Hyunsik knows Minhyuk, Sungjae, and Ilhoon's exact break times.

The game is a bit more fun with the customers he just recognizes rather than talks to. There's a certain high school student he didn't realize came only on Thursdays until last week. It's not exactly a game Hyunsik can win, Hyunsik has a bunch of new customers every week and people do stop coming sometimes, but he thinks that's what keeps it fresh. At any rate, it’s been months since he started thinking like this and it still keeps the hours flowing, so Hyunsik continues his little mental game.

Since he pays so much attention, it really throws him for a loop when one of his most regular customers breaks their predicted pattern.

It's a Wednesday afternoon at the moment, so the regular customers present are a group of female college students and Ilhoon. Hyunsik's always happy to see Ilhoon, but he's especially happy about his presence on Wednesdays. Hyunsik's positive that group of girl students come in to ogle him, and though it’s flattering, it's a bit awkward when Hyunsik doesn't have something else to pay attention to.

Ilhoon's drink has cooled down so he's just sipping at it now instead of talking, Hyunsik is trying not to look over at the girls, and that's when Hyunsik's guessing game for the day is entirely thrown off.

"Hello!" Eunkwang cheerfully calls as he enters the store, sticking up one hand in greeting. He's not even in his suit today, just some plain clothes and one of his many hats.

"Hello," Hyunsik replies, and Ilhoon turns to look at Eunkwang too, nodding at him as a greeting.

"Aah, I don't have any jobs today so I thought I'd stop by," Eunkwang hoists himself up on the stool and also holds up a plastic bag. "I have lots of groceries!"

"That's good," Hyunsik says, relieved to hear that at least even if he's confused about Eunkwang's presence. Breaking his pattern two times in such quick succession is a bit much.

Ilhoon frowns, "Do you not have groceries sometimes?"

"Eeeh, I always eat it's just that sometimes I only eat instant ramen. I definitely have more than that today though," he fishes an apple out of his bag with a smile. "Look at this, I have fruit!"

"That's very nice, Eunkwang," Hyunsik hopes that doesn't sound patronizing. He really is happy Eunkwang is eating better, there's just not much else to say. "Is there any other reason you're out? Have you gotten a call from that place that interviewed you?"

Eunkwang immediately deflates.

"No, no word yet," he sighs, putting the apple back in his bag. "I'm not sure I made the best impression during that interview, I talked way too much, I stopped being careful about what I said, but I guess I'll see as the week goes on."

Eunkwang takes a moment to look around the cafe, and Hyunsik takes that moment to grab a cup for him.

However, Eunkwang keeps surveying the room. The college students are starting to give him a weird look.

"Are you going to order anything?" Hyunsik asks.

"Oh, right," Eunkwang turns back to Hyunsik quickly. "One of my regular smoothies please."

Ilhoon frowns, "Should you really be ordering that if you have trouble getting groceries?"

Hyunsik pales, Ilhoon's a bit too forward for his own good, but Eunkwang takes it in stride, giving Ilhoon a smile.

"That's thoughtful of you but I'm fine. I have enough food for this week and some jobs lined up for the next, so I have some leeway."

Hyunsik exhales with relief. He should have known Eunkwang's lack of worry would never fail. Ilhoon seems to internally shrug and goes back to sipping his drink as Eunkwang goes back to surveying the cafe, paying special attention to the door this time.

It's new behaviour for Eunkwang to say the least, so Hyunsik can't help his raised eyebrow as puts Eunkwang's drink on the counter in front of him.

"Are you waiting for someone?..."

Eunkwang turns to the front again, grabbing his drink and sipping at it immediately.

"No, no, it's nothing like that!" he insists, despite his eyes straying to the door again.

Ilhoon eyes Eunkwang in turn, "You sure?"

Eunkwang nods, "Very sure! I'm not waiting for anyone, I'm just looking."

"For someone?" Ilhoon tries again.

Eunkwang looks towards Ilhoon with a pout.

"Ilhoon, this is only the second time we've met, you shouldn't be needling me like this."

It takes Hyunsik a moment to remember what Ilhoon would be trying to get at.

Once Hyunsik realizes, he can't stop an amused grin from spreading on his face.

"Are you looking for Minhyuk?"

Eunkwang furrows his eyebrows and frowns at him for a second, but he can’t maintain even pretending to be angry. He sighs, leaning further onto the counter.

"Yeah," he sips at his drink sadly. "I thought you said he came here during the afternoons..."

"He has company lunch on Wednesdays," Hyunsik says, grinning even wider. "We never mentioned that, but you sure were listening closely to remember he came in the afternoons."

Eunkwang flops onto the counter, "He was really hot Hyunsik. He was really hot and he thought I was funny."

Ilhoon makes a face of vague disgust and Hyunsik just laughs.

"You do like hot people," Hyunsik teases, leaning forward on the counter as Eunkwang looks up again, still pouting.

"You saw the whole thing," Eunkwang says accusingly, covering his face in his hands. "We talked for like an hour! He seemed really interested! And then I completely forgot to get his number!"

Ilhoon snorts. Hyunsik tries not to follow suit.

"Eunkwang," Hyunsik can't help a chuckle though, "that's the most important part."

"I know!" Eunkwang puts his chin in both hands, closing his eyes sadly. "I have an afternoon performance tomorrow too, and the day after that I'm dedicating to practice..."

Hyunsik reaches out and pats Eunkwang's shoulder.

“Minhyuk comes all the time, believe me. Keep up what you're doing and you'll run into him again eventually."

"Just don't do it when I'm around," Ilhoon advises. "No flirting within ten metres of me. It's gross."

Eunkwang sighs.

"Duly noted."

 

**13.**

Since Minhyuk hadn't hit Born to Blend at all today, he had expected not to see Hyunsik at all, but lo and behold, apparently life can't go a day without having the two of them talk.

Minhyuk was going for an extra jog to make up for the one cut off by Sungjae searching, a fruitless Sungjae search that Donggeun solved easily for that matter, and when he turned the corner, suddenly Hyunsik was there.

It's almost weird to see him not behind the counter of a coffee shop. He’s not even wearing an apron. Minhyuk notes that he actually dresses pretty well. He must change out of his work clothes while he’s there.

"Evening," Hyunsik greets.

Minhyuk stops jogging and takes a deep breath as he comes to a standstill.

"Good evening," Minhyuk gives a short wave. "What are you up to?"

"Headed home after closing," Hyunsik gestures over his shoulder, then realizes Born to Blend is a block away and just grins. "You're out jogging?"

"Yeah, I missed out on some of my exercise time earlier this week," on behalf of one Yook Sungjae, but Hyunsik doesn't particularly need to know that part.

"I see," Hyunsik begins to walk again, so Minhyuk walks alongside him. "Are you headed anywhere in particular?"

"Just the park near here," Minhyuk lets out an exhale. "I've been there a few times at night, it's nice."

Hyunsik’s about to reply when he’s distracted by a loud vibrating noise from his pocket.

"Text?"

Hyunsik nods as fishes his phone out and unlocks its screen.

He takes a moment to read the text, then he grins.

"Anyone I know?" Minhyuk asks.

"Yeah, Eunkwang," Hyunsik gives a quick reply then stuffs his phone back in his pocket. "His texts are funny."

"He seems funny in general," Minhyuk can't help but say, replaying their conversation from the other day in his head. Minhyuk wishes he had remembered to get Eunkwang's number. 

"I think he's put on comedy performances before actually, but I'm not sure how well they went," Hyunsik says, thoughtfully.

Minhyuk will have to ask Eunkwang about that if they manage to meet again.

Hyunsik raises an eyebrow at Minhyuk, "Are you interested in him?..."

"Well, yeah," Minhyuk feels a bit sheepish admitting it like that, but it's not like denial would serve a purpose here. "He seemed pretty fun and he was... Okay, I thought he was kind of hot from afar when I saw him performing, then I saw him closer and wasn't sure whether he was good-looking or completely strange, then he went right back to looking handsome as we talked more?"

Hyunsik laughs, "You're not the first to be confused."

Minhyuk shrugs, "The point is that I'm interested."

Hyunsik hums in assent as they near the park entrance and Minhyuk starts getting ready to jog again.

"You're not gonna jog with me, right?"

Hyunsik smiles sheepishly, "Thanks but no thank you. See you tomorrow."

"See you then," Minhyuk answers in return, stretching his arms a bit before he gets going.

He watches Hyunsik go long enough to see him pull out his phone again, then takes off into the park.

 

**14.**

Eunkwang has had a long day, he had two performances across the city from each other and taking the bus is always tiring, but the most recent text on his phone is giving him energy again.

"From: Hyunsik :D

saw minhyuk at the park near btob, thought u might be interested ^^"

Eunkwang may or may not have yelled in triumph when he got it.

He's arrived at the entrance to the park now, breathing more heavily than he would like, and he takes a moment to straighten his suit and adjust his glasses. They're as fake as ever, but it feels right to make sure he's looking through them properly as he scans the park for any movement. 

Underneath the lamp posts, across a patch of grass, Eunkwang sees someone with their hood up jog past.

They seem about Minhyuk's height, and they're the only person around

Eunkwang breaks into a run again despite his lack of fitness, but by the time he crosses the grass the person is well ahead of him.

"Excuse me!" Eunkwang calls, hoping he doesn't look too flustered.

The person pauses, turns around, and sure enough it's Minhyuk. His eyes are wide as he brings down his hood, but a second later he smiles.

Sweaty and with messy hair, illuminated by the weird yellow light from the lamp post, Minhyuk is still kind of gorgeous.

"Hey Eunkwang," he greets as Eunkwang gets closer, a bit breathless from his jogging. "Fancy seeing you here."

Eunkwang, embarrassingly, is even more breathless from his short sprint, "Yeah, fancy that!"

He leans down on his knees for a moment, and Minhyuk laughs a bit.

"Seems to be quite the coincidence that we've run into each other," his tone is teasing, and Eunkwang can't help grinning widely at him in return.

"Saw you across the park and,” he takes a large inhale, "I'm not in very good shape."

"I can tell," Minhyuk still seems amused as Eunkwang straightens up. "Guess being a pianist doesn't do much for your fitness."

Eunkwang doesn’t bother to dispute that. He stands there, breathing heavily for a moment, and Minhyuk tilts his head, looking at Eunkwang curiously.

"Is there anything you wanted to say? I don't think you want to join me jogging, I mean..." he gestures to Eunkwang in general. "That suit would not work for it."

"I can't afford to run in this more than I already have," if Eunkwang got it dirty he’d have to skimp on some groceries next week, though it’s not like he hasn’t done before, for much stupider reasons than chasing after someone he likes.

Someone he likes and whose phone number he has yet to acquire.

"Actually," Eunkwang starts again, "I was wondering if I could get your number."

Minhyuk blinks.

"My phone number? You want it that badly?"

"Yes!" Eunkwang says, breathlessly. "Absolutely. I want your phone number more than I want a large number of things."

Minhyuk laughs. It's almost like he thinks Eunkwang's weird phrasing is charming.

"If you want it more than a _large_ number of things than I guess I'd better give it to you." 

He extends his hand, and Eunkwang's chest basically soars.

"Give me your phone. I'll give you mine, too, so we're even."

Eunkwang doesn't think he's scrambled for his phone this fast in his life. He holds it out to Minhyuk with a huge grin while Minhyuk casually hands his over.

Eunkwang has an outdated keyboard phone while Minhyuk's is a fancy touch screen thing, but Eunkwang can't even be bitter about that right now. He enters himself as "Eunkwang <3" so Minhyuk can be triple sure of his intentions.

Minhyuk laughs slightly when he sees it. He's "Lee Minhyuk ;)" in Eunkwang's phone now, and the thought of that is going to make Eunkwang excited for the next week at least.

He doesn't think he's going to be able to stop smiling either. At least Minhyuk hasn't stopped too.

Though once he really registers where they are, he scratches at his neck sheepishly.

"I should really get home, though."

"Yeah, if you're out from work this late you need some sleep."

The two separate a bit. Eunkwang's face is still red, and Minhyuk still looks very pleased.

"Call you tomorrow?" Eunkwang asks, miming a phone.

Minhyuk laughs again, making the same hand action in return.

"Talk to you then."

Minhyuk goes back to jogging and Eunkwang begins his trek across the grass again.

He's half in disbelief that just happened, but as he returns to the sidewalk, "Lee Minhyuk ;)" is still in his phone's contacts.

Eunkwang needs to sleep soon, but he's not sure he's going to get over his giddiness in time.

 

**15.**

Sungjae knows it drives his mother crazy when he skips her parties, but every time he attends one he's reminded why it's so appealing to do so.

"If I have to listen to another middle-aged woman say she can't believe how tall I am I'm going to yell," Sungjae says, sitting in an armchair across from Minhyuk. He wants to slide down and sink into his seat, but his mother has a sixth sense for when he's not sitting up properly.

Minhyuk types away on his phone, "They're just trying to be friendly."

Sungjae sighs, "I know, I know. They’re all very nice but it doesn’t make the conversations any less boring.”

Minhyuk seems to finish typing his message and looks up with a smile, "Tired of being a good son already?"

"I'm just tired of my mom's parties," Sungjae leans his head back, eyeing Minhyuk as he picks his phone up again. "Now that I've started skipping them I've realized how much more fun I could be having."

"Just text or something," Minhyuk says as he starts to do so himself. "Don't you have friends?"

"I'm the host's son though, I have to be social..." If Sungjae's going to be at this party he's going to at least behave properly while present. Being rude is a bigger offence in his parents’ eyes than even skipping.

"Donggeun's parents are here. Donggeun himself probably made some excuse to get out. Maybe if you text him he'll come in with Goldie and dashingly rescue you."

Sungjae indulges in the "dashing rescue by Donggeun" fantasy for all of five seconds, then shakes his head, "My mom would never allow a dog in the house."

"Speaking of Donggeun, Ilhoon told me you were going to ask him out but didn't."

Minhyuk puts down his phone for another five seconds as he looks at Sungjae with amusement. Sungjae feels his cheeks flush and looks away.

"I couldn't find a good lead-in."

Minhyuk snorts, "Just do it. That's how I get dates."

"I normally get dates by waiting for the other person to say something," Sungjae mutters. "It normally happens."

"I really, truly doubt Donggeun is aware enough to do that."

Sungjae squirms, "I know, I know."

Minhyuk grins at him, "Is my baby cousin being shy?"

Sungjae looks away, "No."

Minhyuk's phone rumbles yet again and he picks it up eagerly, so Sungjae equally eagerly changes the subject.

"Who are you texting anyways?"

"A man I actually asked out," he looks up at Sungjae. "Unlike you."

Sungjae balks, "When did this happen? I didn't even know you liked someone!"

"You haven't exactly been asking me about my life lately, Mr. Avoiding-Family-Events,“ Minhyuk raises an eyebrow at Sungjae before going back to his phone. "But I just met him last week, so you're not too late on the news."

That makes Sungjae feel properly guilty, but he decides to ignore that feeling in favour of more questioning, "Who is he?"

"Seo Eunkwang, we're the same age," Minhyuk grins as he talks about this guy. "Like, really the same age, we're only a week apart, and he's a pianist. Old friends with Hyunsik. He's really weird. You'll like him."

Sungjae's very curious now, "You say that like I'll get to meet him."

Minhyuk grins even more, almost gloating now, "Since texting him seems to be going quite well, I'm assuming you will eventually."

Sungjae recognizes that as bragging, but he's not going to acknowledge it, "Okay, I'll take your word for it."

"I'm trustworthy, I know how my own life is going.“ 

After saying this, Minhyuk pulls out his phone again and reads eagerly, smiling to himself.

Sungjae narrows his eyes, "Okay, he can't possibly be that funny. You're exaggerating how much you like him already to make my progress look worse."

Minhyuk shakes his head, looking down at his phone with slight disbelief, "It's not even that. Eunkwang is just so _weird_ , Sungjae. I'm not sure he feels shame. I'm so into it."

Sungjae groans, "Please stop bragging."

"I'm not, I'm stating a fact!" Minhyuk insists as he composes a reply. He's paying little attention to Sungjae at this point, which makes Sungjae want to lie down and take a nap to get this party over with.

If Donggeun's skipping the next party too, Sungjae's definitely skipping with him. 

 

**16.**

Minhyuk pulls up to the restaurant at the address Eunkwang gave him and looks around carefully. The place is relatively high end, the kind of place Minhyuk's aunt and uncle would take him out to, and some well-dressed people are filtering out.

Eunkwang said his performance would be done soon, but he's not outside quite yet.

Minhyuk leans against his car while he waits and fiddles with his phone. His last text from Eunkwang comes up on the screen: "see you then!!!!" Eunkwang's texting almost always sounds excited. Minhyuk wonders if that’s a habit he has around everyone or something he does around people he likes.

As much as they've been texting, and texting frequently, this is only the second time they've met in person after the encounter in the park. Their first meet-up wasn't really a proper date either in Minhyuk's mind, since it was at Born to Blend and Hyunsik was a third party.

Minhyuk's kind of caught on that Eunkwang doesn't really have the financial means to go on a fancier date, but he's determined to go somewhere where it will be just the two of them this time.

As Minhyuk thinks that, he catches sight of a head of blonde hair among the people leaving the building. 

Eunkwang notices Minhyuk instantly, walking over to him with a large smile.

"Good evening!" He swings his briefcase around. Minhyuk still hasn't figured out what's in it. "I hope you didn't wait too long."

"Not at all," Minhyuk stuffs his phone in his pocket and opens the passenger seat for Eunkwang before walking over to the driver's side. "Basically just got here."

Eunkwang continues to smile as he settles into Minhyuk's car, "That's a relief. It really felt like they took me a while to give me my cheque, but look at this!"

Eunkwang holds up an envelope triumphantly.

"I don't want to open it right now but this is the best pay I've had in months."

"I'll take your word for it," Minhyuk says, turning his keys in the ignition.

Eunkwang quickly slips the envelope into his briefcase as Minhyuk pulls out of his parking spot.

"Where are we going?" Eunkwang asks. "I don't have anywhere in mind, do you?"

Minhyuk grins, "How do you feel about the park?"

"Which one?" Eunkwang asks, also smiling.

"There's one nearby," Minhyuk saw it on the drive here, and he's fairly certain he can find it just by headed towards home. "There's some restaurants, too, so I can buy you dinner after."

Eunkwang seems to get embarrassed, "Oh, you don't have to-"

"I'm the one with the fancy car here," Minhyuk points out, grinning as Eunkwang gets even more flustered. "It's no problem for me, seriously."

"Well," he's blushing a bit now, "thank you."

"We haven't even eaten yet, it's too early for you to get flustered about it," Minhyuk teases.

Eunkwang takes it in stride and laughs, "That's because it's too early in this relationship for you to be buying me food just because."

"Who says?" Minhyuk pulls into a parking spot as he sees the park nearby, and sees that the block immediately next to it has no space.

"Mmm, good point," Eunkwang says as the pair of them get out of the car. He joins Minhyuk on the sidewalk with what seems like a spring in his step. "Feels early, though."

"How much experience do you have to be able to say?" Minhyuk asks, half teasing and half curious.

Eunkwang holds a hand up to his chest, pretending to be offended, "Are you implying you don't think I can get dates?"

"Not at all," Minhyuk grins. "You're here with me, aren't you?"

"That speaks more to your abilities than mine," Eunkwang sighs. "I forgot to get your number."

"I forgot to get yours, too."

"Oh, that's right," Eunkwang seems to perk up at that realization. "Anyways, I've been in a couple of relationships. I know how this goes, don't you worry." 

He pokes Minhyuk's nose, a playful gesture that seems both out of place on someone so formally dressed and completely normal for Eunkwang.

It's bizarre how endearing Minhyuk finds it.

"Well, that's good," Minhyuk says after a second. "We're on the same page then."

Eunkwang laughs, "I would have been surprised if you hadn’t been in relationships, I mean," he gestures to Minhyuk. "Have you looked at yourself recently?"

Minhyuk laughs. Eunkwang doesn't seem to be good at subtle, "Thank you. I have looked at myself on many occasions."

"Something you're lucky to be able to do," Eunkwang smiles, almost proud of himself, and Minhyuk laughs again.

It's going to be a fun night.

 

**17.**

Both Ilhoon and Hyunsik look up in alarm as Sungjae starts to choke on his coffee, startled by something on his phone.

"You okay?" Hyunsik asks. Sungjae waves him off.

"I'll be fine in a second," Sungjae manages to croak out before coughing some more. "My coffee went down wrong," another cough interrupts him. "It's nothing major."

Ilhoon pats Sungjae's back, hoping to provide some kind of support. He also sneaks a glance at Sungjae's phone while he's close.

What must have startled him is still displayed on his screen. It's a simple text from Minhyuk that reads: "guess who got himself a boyfriend ˚✧₊⁎( ˘ω˘ )⁎⁺˳✧༚"

Ilhoon raises an eyebrow at Sungjae, "That is not nearly surprising enough to merit choking."

Sungjae stops coughing. He sighs in relief before turning to Ilhoon.

"It's surprising to me," he says, somewhat defensive.

“It shouldn’t be,” Ilhoon thinks back to the three or so times he’s come in here while Minhyuk and Eunkwang were talking. Granted, Sungjae was never there to see the two of them, but to Ilhoon it would have been more surprising if they’d taken a while to reach this point.

“I last saw Minhyuk two weeks ago, and he said it had only been one week since he met a guy,” Sungjae pouts and droops down onto the counter. “How can getting together only take three weeks?”

Ilhoon shrugs, “People can do that.”

“Weird,” Sungjae mutters, and Ilhoon rolls his eyes.

“It’s just a matter of thinking someone’s hot when you meet them and then saying something about it quickly,” Ilhoon reasons. “Haven’t you been mooning over Donggeun since basically the day you met him?”

Sungjae immediately sits up, “Not exactly the day I met him. Maybe a few months in.”

“Whatever,” Ilhoon waves it off, “my point is that if you actually confessed to people, you could get a boyfriend in three weeks too.” He leans towards Sungjae knowingly. “You could probably get a boyfriend very soon, if you happened to say something to one Shin Donggeun. Like you said you would but haven’t too many times for me to bother counting.”

Sungjae looks away, “It never feels like the right moment.”

“What are you waiting for?” Ilhoon understands the importance of timing, sure, but Sungjae takes it too far. “Angels to descend from the sky and tell you it’s time to ask him out?”

“That would be nice.”

Ilhoon looks up at the ceiling. He has been trying so hard. Sungjae’s entire image change is thanks to Ilhoon convincing him that he might be more confident if he thought of himself as really cool. Ilhoon indirectly convinced Sungjae to buy a _motorcycle_ , surely giving him enough confidence to ask a boy out isn’t that hard of a task.

Yet after months of trying, Sungjae still hasn’t said a thing to Donggeun. Ilhoon almost feels like it’s never going to work.

He was trying to hard to be a good friend, but it seems that his efforts have fallen short completely.

Ilhoon looks down again and sighs, drawing Sungjae’s attention.

“Whatever,” he says. “I guess you can just wait forever, then.”

Sungjae looks like he wants to argue, but he says nothing this time.

 

**18.**

Eunkwang holds Minhyuk’s hand tightly as he lets them into his apartment. He’s cleaned recently, but it’s still a bit embarrassing to let Minhyuk, a man in possession of a very nice car and a fancy-sounding office job, into his dingy box apartment. 

Almost everything in the apartment can be seen right from the door, and it’s not like Eunkwang’s furnishings are nice. He chose his couch for it’s comfy fold-out bed, not its looks, and though the kitchen isn’t fully visible, there’s half a wall blocking a lot of it, it’s still obvious the appliances are old. 

Eunkwang grins anyways, intent on being as good a host as he can.

“Welcome to my home,” he declares, letting go of Minhyuk’s hand and stepping aside to let him in. “There’s no real coat closet but I have this stand here if you want to take off your jacket.”

Minhyuk looks around the apartment as he sheds his coat and hangs it up. Eunkwang feels almost unreasonably nervous.

“It’s cozy,” Minhyuk declares eventually, peering over the half wall into the kitchen. “Very lived-in.”

“You don’t have to be nice about it,” Eunkwang says, sighing. “I know it’s a dump.”

“Well, it’s a nice dump then,” Minhyuk insists, straying over to the back of the apartment. “What are behind these doors?”

“The piano room and the bathroom,” Eunkwang tells him, smiling as he comes up behind Minhyuk. He really was expecting some teasing about his apartment, he would have accepted it with no lingering ill feelings, but to have something like a compliment to his home is a nice change. “That’s why I’m on the first floor, so we could get the piano in here safely.”

“Do you sleep in the piano room?”

Eunkwang blinks, “All that’s in there is my piano, a closet, and a desk. My laptop, too, most days.”

Minhyuk frowns, apparently a bit confused, “Then where’s your bed?”

Eunkwang gestures behind them, “There’s a fold-out bed in the couch!”

Minhyuk takes a moment to process this.

“We came here to bang because it was closer than my house,” he says, slowly, “and now you’re telling me you don’t have a bed.”

“I have a fold-out bed.”

Minhyuk raises an eyebrow, “You sleep on the couch in your own apartment.”

“On a fold-out bed that’s in the couch most of the time,” Eunkwang corrects, walking over and unfolding the couch to prove his point. “It’s really not that bad. I couldn’t get both a bed and the piano in the other room, and I need to be able to practice.”

Minhyuk watches the fold-out bed spring out before him, “That’s fair enough. Is the fold-out bed why all those blankets are piled on the back of the couch?”

“You got it!” Eunkwang picks his pillow up from beside the couch, tossing it at Minhyuk with a grin. “This is here too.”

Minhyuk catches it and looks down at the fold-out bed again. He still looks a little skeptical, and Eunkwang’s becoming slightly nervous again.

“I’m sure it’s fine for sleeping on, but,” Minhyuk frowns. “Are you absolutely sure this will work for sex?”

Eunkwang grins sheepishly. Minhyuk doesn’t seem too judgemental but that is a legitimate concern, “It will probably move around a lot.”

Minhyuk starts to look amused again, “And you’re sure it won’t collapse under the weight of two people?”

Eunkwang laughs, stepping around the set-up to approach Minhyuk, “We’re not exactly large people.”

“I’m heavier than you though,” Minhyuk says, leaning right into Eunkwang’s space. “I’ve got more muscle.”

“I’ve definitely noticed your muscles,” Eunkwang laughs a little as Minhyuk kisses his neck. “The fold-out bed isn’t that delicate though.”

“Mm, good,” Minhyuk grins as Eunkwang sits down on the edge of it, dragging Minhyuk down with him. “It’ll be good for now, then.”

Eunkwang wants to comment on the “for now” part, but the kissing is starting to involve more of his mouth, and he probably shouldn’t get distracted by talking about his furniture.

 

**19.**

The bells above the door of Born to Blend ring, and though Changsub doesn’t notice them, Hyunsik looks up from their conversation. Once Hyunsik gets a look at the customer, he frowns with concern, so Changsub looks at the door too.

It’s Ilhoon’s friend from the skatepark, the one with the leather jacket, and he’s dragging his feet as he brings himself into the café, looking down at the floor, and plops himself on the stool beside Changsub with little to no noise.

“Sungjae?” Hyunsik asks.

No response.

Even Changsub raises an eyebrow at him, “You okay?”

Sungjae then heaves a large sigh. 

“It’s nothing. Boy problems.”

“Donggeun problems?” Hyunsik asks knowingly. 

This whole conversation sounds eerily similar to the one Changsub overheard at the park.

“Ilhoon has given up on giving me advice,” that part’s a new element, though it doesn’t seem surprising to Changsub. “He says that I’m on my own now.”

Hyunsik hums in acknowledgement as Sungjae slumps down on the counter. Changsub almost wants to pat his back, but they’ve just met and he’s not sure Sungjae will be open to that.

“Everyone gets tired of repeating themselves eventually,” Hyunsik says, slight grin on his face, but Sungjae frowns a bit.

“It’s not like he told me the same things all the time,” Sungjae says. “I mean, at first it was all about ‘Sungjae, we need a way to get Donggeun’s attention’ so we came up with the whole delinquent thing because that’s kind of what Ilhoon does. Then it was about ‘okay, so you have this whole new image now but you really need to feel confident to pull it off’. Then it became about ‘Sungjae, even if you don’t have total confidence you need to be assertive’ and now there’s just. Nothing, I guess.”

Listening to all that, Changsub thinks that even besides Sungjae not following the advice exactly, Ilhoon doesn’t give very good advice in the first place. No wonder Sungjae’s floundering.

Hyunsik doesn’t seem to be having the same thoughts. He plods on with the conversation. 

“But you already have all his advice, can’t you just follow it now?”

Sungjae pouts, “He always had something new to say and following his advice is hard, anyways.”

“Probably because, in my opinion, it’s not very good advice,” Changsub says, unable to help himself now, and both Sungjae and Hyunsik both look at him in surprise. 

“Trying to get someone’s attention through acting differently rarely ever works, first of all,” Changsub says, and Sungjae is listening with rapt attention. Having an audience encourages Changsub to go on. “Second of all, did he give you concrete tips on how to be more confident or just tell you that you needed to be?”

Sungjae looks like a revelation is dawning on him, “He just told me to, mostly. Act like I was and then it would come.”

“Okay, that’s not horrible advice, but pretty hard,” Changsub says, and Sungjae nods eagerly.

Hyunsik seems to be thinking.

“You know Sungjae, you seem plenty confident to me, even before you bought a motorcycle,” Hyunsik says slowly, so now Sungjae looks up to him. “I’m not quite sure where Ilhoon was going with all that. It seems like you’re just shy about asking people out, and that’s okay. As long as you can get enough words out, it should be fine.”

Sungjae looks down at the counter, “You think so?”

“You should think about what you want to say in advance, then blurt it out,” Changsub goes on, still on a bit of an advice kick. “I can’t say it will all work out, I have no idea who this dude is, but once it’s out in the open you can stop worrying so much.”

“You can even sell your motorcycle, since it didn’t get his attention,” Hyunsik jokes.

Sungjae ignores that, a bit deep in thought. 

Then he stands up.

“So I think about what I want to say, right?”

“Then blurt it out,” Changsub advises again.

“Okay!” Sungjae balls his fists. “I think I can do that!”

He runs out of the café. Changsub and Hyunsik watch him go. He flounders a bit once he’s outside the building, looking for his motorcycle presumably, then spots it and starts running again.

Changsub and Hyunsik look back at each other.

“Do you think he’ll really listen to that after he didn’t listen to Ilhoon so many times?” Hyunsik asks.

Changsub shrugs, grabbing his coffee for another sip, “You know him better than me. It’s not my problem anyways.”

Hyunsik sighs. 

“I guess it’s not.”

 

**20.**

Donggeun is just starting to get back to his own neighbourhood when he gets a text from Sungjae.

Goldie is eager to get home, panting hard and straining her leash to its limit, but Donggeun stops her anyways as he pauses to read the message over.

“From: Yook Sungjae

hey where are u? i’d like to talk to you in person for a bit maybe?…”

Donggeun looks at the time and briefly wonders why Sungjae has something to say at eight at night, but he responds anyways. He won’t be sleeping for a while and Sungjae’s always fun.

“To: Yook Sungjae

I’m just headed home from walking Goldie lol. Can you meet me there?”

Goldie barks, looking over her shoulder at Donggeun, so he stuffs his phone in his pocket and lets her guide their way home. Donggeun feels his phone vibrate again in what feels like no time at all, but he’s literally two blocks away now, so he tells himself he’ll check what Sungjae said when he gets home.

It turns out not to be necessary. The moment Donggeun turns the corner, he can see a motorcycle parked in front of his home and Sungjae watching attentively from the motorcycle’s seat.

Sungjae perks up when he sees Donggeun. Goldie perks up when she sees Sungjae, more insistently dragging Donggeun down the street.

Donggeun grins as he approaches, “Hey, sorry to make you wait.”

“It’s fine,” Sungjae says, hopping off his motorcycle and tucking his helmet under his arm. “I expected it, I mean, I did come here even though you could have been out, I mean…”

Sungjae trails off, and Donggeun looks at him curiously. Goldie wags her tail beside him.

“What _do_ you mean, Sungjae?” Donggeun walks up to his doorstep, both Goldie and Sungjae trailing behind him. “Use your words.”

“Can you put the dog inside first?”

Donggeun raises an eyebrow as he unlocks the door, “Why?”

“There’s something I want to tell you and-“

Donggeun laughs, “Goldie’s not going to know what we’re talking about.”

Sungjae flushes, “She’s distracting me and I need no distractions.”

Donggeun doesn’t know what Sungjae’s going on about, but he lets Goldie inside anyways, then closes the door behind her,. She whines and he apologizes inside his head, but hopefully Sungjae won’t be long.

“So what did you want to say?” 

Donggeun isn’t quite sure what it could be, but whatever it is it’s making Sungjae very flustered. He’s fidgeting a lot, and before he speaks, he takes a deep breath.

“I know this is really sudden and I couldn’t find a good lead-in but will you go out with me?”

Donggeun blinks at Sungjae. The tips of his ears are red.

“Like on a date?”

“Yes, on a date,” Sungjae is averting his eyes now.

Donggeun pauses for a moment to think it over, but the answer comes almost surprisingly quick.

“Yeah, sure.”

Sungjae looks up at Donggeun, eyes wide.

“Sure?”

Donggeun nods, “Sure, I’ll go out with you.”

“That…” Sungjae doesn’t seem as nervous now, rather, Donggeun thinks his fidgeting is starting to look excited. “That’s it? Sure? You said yes?”

Donggeun laughs, “What were you expecting?”

“Maybe a little more than ‘sure’?” Sungjae shakes his head rapidly. “Not that your answer’s bad at all I just thought this would be a little more dramatic, a little more… Hard, I guess?” He laughs sheepishly. “Confessions are always so big in dramas.”

Donggeun laughs too, “This is real life and I’ve just said yes.” 

Sungjae looks awed. It’s more than a little cute. 

“What time are you free?” Donggeun asks, grinning.

“Any time,” Sungjae answers quickly before collecting himself. “Actually, I’d like to be free any time but let me check my calendar.” He pulls out his phone, then pauses and looks up at Donggeun. “You mean it? You’ll go out with me? Asking you was this easy the whole time?”

“You’re being silly,” Donggeun steps a bit closer to Sungjae. “I said yes already.”

Sungjae blinks in surprise, then smiles.

“I guess you did.”

It feels like they stand there smiling for a while, talking quietly about date times. Goldie barks a few times, but Donggeun thinks she can wait for just a while longer.

 

**21.**

Hyunsik idly watches through the window as Sungjae and Donggeun talk. It’s a good day for sitting outside, bright and warm, and they’re very animated. Hyunsik’s angle at the counter means he can only see Sungjae, but he’s making hand gestures and smiling widely, making moves to grab Donggeun’s hand but never quite getting there, so Hyunsik presumes the date is going well.

They’re cute together, but Ilhoon is pointedly ignoring the date in favour of sullenly sipping his drink.

“Is it really that bad that he took Changsub’s advice?”

Ilhoon heaves a sigh, “Not really. I hoped I could help him for once is all.”

Hyunsik leans against the counter, more towards Ilhoon, and smiles at him. He hopes it’s comforting. He never quite knows what to do when Ilhoon gets vulnerable, much less in a café in the middle of the day. Hyunsik wants to pat his head, but he’s sure that’s not what Ilhoon wants.

“I’m sure you help him with lots of things.”

Ilhoon scoffs, “All I do is get him to skip class with me.”

“And he decides to do it often, so he must be getting something out of it,” Hyunsik suggests. 

“Yeah, some rebellion in his rich little life, maybe.”

Hyunsik leans further down on the counter, making sure to smile as best he can.

“He likes you as a person, Ilhoon. That much I can tell you for sure.”

Ilhoon snorts again, but he doesn’t argue. He seems to be considering it.

Before the conversation can continue, the bell above the door rings.

“Hyunsik!” it’s Eunkwang. He shows up quite frequently in the afternoon these days. “How are you?”

Hyunsik smiles at him, “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Oh and is this Ilhoon?” Eunkwang helps himself to the stool next to Ilhoon after his usual short struggle. “Long time no see.”

“It hasn’t been long. I’m here when you are a lot. You’re just too occupied to notice,” Ilhoon answers dryly, all signs of his earlier doubts gone.

Eunkwang laughs, “Come on, Minhyuk and I say hi to you.”

“Are you waiting for Minhyuk now?” Hyunsik asks out of politeness. The two have been almost inseparable recently. He isn’t expecting a no.

“He should be here in five minutes!” Eunkwang looks very pleased. Ilhoon makes a small gagging motion.

“Are you sick?”

Hyunsik blinks as Changsub appears behind Ilhoon. Apparently he was too distracted to notice the bell ringing again.

“I’m fine,” Ilhoon says defensively as Changsub grins at him, taking the stool on his other side. Hyunsik almost wants to sigh. He likes them both, but he wishes they had met each other in a way that got them on friendlier terms. The bickering gets a bit tiring for him, as fun as it seems to be for them.

Before they can get going, the café door rings again and there’s Minhyuk, still in his work clothes. Minhyuk holds a finger up to his mouth when Hyunsik notices him, then sticks his hands on Eunkwang’s neck.

Eunkwang yelps and spins around accusingly, “Why are your hands so cold?”

Minhyuk laughs, “Just luck, today.”

He sits down beside Eunkwang and Eunkwang grabs his hand immediately.

“Two of the purple smoothies please," Minhyuk says to Hyunsik. Eunkwang pretends to gasp and bring his hand up to his chest in surprise before Minhyuk swats his hand down.

“Oh, right, drink,” Changsub chimes in, “I’ll just have my usual coffee, please.”

“We'd like refills too!” that’s Sungjae, peeking his head in from outside, Donggeun trailing behind him.

“I'd also like one,” Ilhoon holds his empty cup towards Hyunsik, grinning. “Unless you have too much to do?”

It is a bit much, but it’s a nice day, everyone asking is Hyunsik’s friend, and since that’s the case Hyunsik almost wants to give them all drinks for free.


End file.
